Reenter The Game
by xOhxSnapx
Summary: Slightly AU. David, Christopher, Jalil, and April came out of Everworld. They fell asleep for the final time over there. Senna, however, is still on each of their minds, and Everworld seems like just a dream that they all shared. That dream is soon becomi
1. I

**Disclaimer: **I don't own these characters. I only wish I did. No, really. I wish I did.  
**Notes:** This is my first Everworld fic, and I'm trying to decide on if I want to continue it or not.  
**Summary:** David, Christopher, Jalil, and April came out of Everworld. They fell asleep for the final time over there. Senna, however, is still on each of their minds, and Everworld seems like just a dream that they all shared. That dream is soon becoming another reality.

* * *

"_General Davidus, the little boy who always pretended he was asleep…"_

It had been a year since Everworld. A year since Loki, since Merlin. A year since Senna. The four of us had come out of it just fine. We had fallen asleep in Everworld for the final time. The real world was how we had left it, or rather how we didn't leave it. We hadn't really left. Our real world selves were living out our lives while we spent out time in Everworld. It was a concept I'd never understand. There was always one way to describe things in Everworld; W.T.E.. Welcome To Everworld.

None of us ever forgot, I don't think. We avoided each other like the plague or at least we tried to. April called it all a dream, something that had never truly happened, she wanted to believe that Senna had just run away from home, ran away for good. Jalil was the same way. What had happened defied all logic stood for in his mind; he didn't want to believe it. Christopher thought it was some joke, something that could be carelessly tossed about. The slightest thing would remind him of Everworld, and he would twitch. I didn't want to believe that it wasn't not real. Everything we had felt sure as hell felt real. All of it.

The fact of the matter was: None of us could ever escape the nightmare that had been Everworld.

There was something that never left my mind, something that had been bothering even before we returned to the real world. If Senna had died in Everworld, would she be dead in the real world. She probably was. Her entirety had either completely crossed over to Everworld or back to the real world. Still, we had been awake in the real world while we were both alive and sleeping in Everworld. Could it be possible that dead dream, and if Senna's entirety hadn't crossed over to one world completely, could she be dead and dreaming in Everworld, and still be alive somewhere in the real world?

I could hear her. I could hear Senna in the back of my mind. The words she had spoken to me before Everworld. Before we had all entered the nightmare. She had been so innocent when she had asked it, so helpless and so shy. Senna had been draining me then, wrapping me around her finger like yarn. I had been at her disposal. It wasn't long before she got to Jalil, and toyed with his mind, and then took hold of Christopher. We had all been her toys. We were pieces in that game of hers. And it was that game we played.

Seniors and juniors still went to Taco Bell for lunch, and it's the one place where all of us went. It was the only place we talked about Everworld. We talked about everything there, hell, we talked about everything that we could remember. Talk about Everworld was always very serious.

"Jesus Christ," Christopher said, sliding into the booth next to April. "Stop aging, would you? You all are getting old. And ugly. Butt ass ugly."

Leave it to Christopher to break the serious tension. April scooted as close to the wall as she could. Jalil rolled his eyes, and all I did was stare. If I said that talk of Everworld was always very serious between the four of us, I lied. We hardly talked about it. When we did it was mainly just nodding, and short agreeing or disagreeing, depending on the way the conversation had been going.

"They should sell beer here."

April looked up. "It would be pointless," she said. She took a drink of her soda before continuing. "You wouldn't be able to buy it until you're twenty-one. Even then you'd just be aching for an early death.." She crinkled her nose, avoiding the pointed look she was getting from Jalil who was all too clearly amused. She waved her hand at him before taking another drink of her soda.

Though it was Jalil who had brought up the subject of Senna and Everworld first. It was always him who brought it up, even if he didn't want to believe it had happened. There was always questions to be asked, and there was always those same questions that went unanswered. We'd be silent for awhile, poking at our food, and drinking our sodas, flicking little balls of rolled up napkins at each other before Jalil finally snapped. "What do you think happened to Se-"

"Don't," Christopher said, gritting his teeth. "She died and skipped off to the special hell with the rest of the nut jobs like Hitler and that other guy, and people who talk during movies. Look. She's gone. Creepy witchy woman is gone."

April drew in a breath, and our attention was directed at her as she pursed her lips together in thought before looking up at the three of us. Her green eyes were studying us all intently before she shook her head, biting down on her straw now. She sucked in another breath threw her nose. April shook her head again. "We didn't move her body, did we?" She asked, glancing up at us again. I felt my stomach drop. I couldn't remember, and judging by the looks on Christopher's and Jalil's faces, they couldn't remember either. "I think she could still be out there somewhere."

Christopher sat back. "Man," he said, running a hand through his hair. "W.T.E."

"W.T.E.," Jalil amended.

Once again with feeling.

"W.T.E.." I agreed.

"_When it happen, David, will you save me?"_


	2. II

It's crap. It's poorly written, but I'm tired. But I thought I'd update this.

* * *

**Christopher's POV  
**

I could have said, "Well, fuck, I'm taking a nap," but I didn't.

I just stared down at the table. Trying to find patterns in the design. It was hard. Being in a room with them all was hard. Someone always had to go and bring up what I sure as hell was trying to forget. It was like they couldn't leave it alone. April may as well have screamed at the top of her lungs 'I killed my sister!' and ran around Taco Bell. Everyone who knew Senna, aside from the four of us, believed that she ran away. I found it all very funny, though at the same time, it was hardly funny.

They couldn't leave it alone. Every time it was always 'Hey, remember when we were in Egypt?' or my personal favorite 'Remember when David wet himself?'. It was always the same. Always something that had to be brought up somehow, whether it be by David, April, or Jalil, or hell, even myself; it was always the same. Sometimes I even wished we had never left Everworld because if we hadn't, we wouldn't be trying to forget it, and April wouldn't be drumming her fingers on the table, biting her lower lip like she always does when she's nervous.

Hey, after spending so much time with all of them you tend to pick out certain habits that they all have. April stopped biting her lower lip. Guess she noticed Jalil looking at her oddly. I sniggered. Leave it to him to stare and make the obvious even more obvious. At least David had kept his mouth shut. He always had a way of opening his mouth and making some stupid comment that made him sound stupid, not that he wasn't already, but that's entirely beside the point.

April nudged me in my side, and I jumped, looking at her.

"What? I didn't say anything," I muttered, crossing my arms onto the table. Jalil rolled his eyes.

"Then now would be a perfect time to say something, Christopher," April said pointedly, staring down at the table which was something that she rarely ever did. Actually, I could never remember a time when I had seen her look down at a table while talking, and I've known her for awhile. Maybe this whole Senna ordeal was getting to her. It sure as hell was getting to me.

Shrugging I looked down at the table before taking a drink of my soda. "Okay," I said, before taking one quick sip of soda. "So, maybe we didn't move the body. I still say leave it. The witch woman died and skipped off to that special hell I told you about. She and Hitler are probably hitting it off real well, April. Real well." Avoiding the stares that each of them were giving me, I threw my hands up. "Well then don't ask me to speak, you're the one who shoved a knife in her."

David shifted, looking anywhere but April, Jalil, and myself. I couldn't blame him, really. We were getting loud, not that anyone around would know what the hell we were talking about, but we were getting loud, and that was all that had really mattered anyway. That was when Jalil began to drum his fingers against the table, as if trying to get all of our attention. Now, I admit, I've done some stupid things before to get attention, but that was just silly. Of all of the things that he could do to get attention he had to drum his fingers on the table like April. How sad was that?

For awhile Jalil just stared around the table at all of us. And we all stared back. It was one of those silences where no one talks, but some sort of message was sent around. I'm pretty sure we all got the same vibe: Something just didn't feel right; like there was a reason for why none of us could ever really stop thinking about Everworld. It wasn't exactly a pleasant kind of feeling, the silence. Maybe, if we were lucky someone would stop by the table and ask David what time it was.

That would break the silence, wouldn't it? Too bad it didn't happen.

Finally, Jalil spoke up. "April's right. We never moved the body."

"Don't know about you, Captain Obvious, but I wasn't planning on touching some dead witches body."

"Christopher, shut up. The point is, we knew Senna could change shape and open pathways, and whatever else she did," Jalil said, leaning forward. We all did, lean forward that is. It was like we were all telling each other one big secret. It was all very fun, expect for the part where this was all about Senna and Everworld, that much I could have done without. "What we don't know is if she foresaw her death and found some way to fake it, to make her think that we thought she was dead. All of us left the scene, we never bothered to ask what had happened. We'd gone to bed at the end of the next few days and woke up back at home. We haven't been back to Everworld since."

Aw, now Jalil is such the speech maker. He makes me so proud - even though I wasn't completely sure that I understood any of that. It made sense, so I guess I did understand that. In fact, I remembered. We never did ask what had been done with Senna's body, we had never even thought of going back to the scene. We just carried out a few days after that and went to sleep one night. I could already see the wheels in David's head turning, it was very clear that he was thinking about something. Well, I hoped to hell that he was because I sure wasn't, and I doubt that April could properly form anything together without stuttering, and Jalil had just done his share of the talking.

"Something doesn't feel right," David said looking around the place. Taco Bell was getting just a bit crowded, but that hardly mattered to him. I had to refrain from making some kind of comment to David about he might as well have been Captain Obvious II.

I shrugged. "Well, if we all get sucked through some pathway - time hole - thing, we'll know that we have a witchy-pooh to hunt and kill," I paused before continuing. "Again. Hunt and kill again."

"You mean search for again."

"Yeah, that's what I said, April. Hunt and kill. Again."


	3. III

_"Where is your daddy?"_

"_That's him downstairs." _

"That's my daddy."

"_Not anymore. Now he's mine. You can keep her."_

I could still feel her in the room, as if some part of her had never left. It was the same everywhere in the house, too. Everywhere that she had been, everywhere that she had gone, and I could still feel her there. It was like she was behind me every place that I went, looking over my shoulder and smirking. There would even be times when I would turn around just to make sure that she wasn't behind me. I had spent so many years with her. We were little when we met, and nothing but teenagers when she died. Now, I couldn't seem to get her off of my mind. I knew it wasn't guilt that I was feeling. I would have to have been mad to be feeling guilt now. She had used us. All of us.

I sat on my bed, looking around my room. It was still the same as it had been yesterday and the day before that. Two weeks ago my dad had handed me a picture of Senna, telling me that I needed to keep a memory of her in my room. That picture was hidden under my bed in a shoebox with an old Barbie that I had stolen from Senna when we were little. Thinking back on that now, I am pretty sure that she knew I had her Barbie all along. She was always looking at me funny.

Two days had passed since sitting in Taco Bell with the others, and I still didn't feel right. No matter where I went I could always feel Senna around. David could, too, though he'd never admit to it. It was like she had left a part of her behind in this world when she had died in Everworld. I didn't like what that meant for the rest of us. Because it did mean something; just like the Barbie under my bed meant something: She was still out there in one form or another, and there wasn't a thing I could do about it now. I wasn't in Everworld where myths sprang true. None of us had been there in over a year. The things we had seen? I wasn't sure that I ever wanted to go back. There was a way back to begin with.

It's a comfort to know that anywhere you can go after Everworld would be nothing short of a heaven.

I could hear my mom and dad downstairs talking. Of course they had to be talking about Senna. She was all that they ever talked about now. Senna's run away. Senna's gone. Senna could even be dead! Oh, they had no idea. Last I remember she was dead as a doornail, not that that was something that I wanted to remember, but it was my last memory of my sister. It wasn't my favorite memory of her. My favorite memory of her had been when we were little, and my dad had taken us to get our Spring pictures done. My mom had bought Senna and I matching white dresses. We were only about four or five, but I remember it.

Her hair fell to her shoulders, having refused to let my mom do a thing to it. The white dress that we both wore gave her a sort of a glow. To me, at the time, Senna had seemed like one of those pictures you see of angels without wings. No one believed that we were sisters. That day was the one day that she didn't want attention drawn to her, every compliment made to her she would blush and stand by dad. That was my favorite memory of Senna. They day that she could have actually been deemed innocent, and not creepy.

"I told you he was my daddy, Senna," I said into the room as if she could hear me, and in a sense I hoped she could. "We don't belong to you. Not anymore." With that I fell back onto my bed and shut my eyes. That was when I felt her most, when my eyes were shut. Not when I was sleeping, but when my eyes were shut, like she was right beside me, glaring at me. Of course, I always drifted to sleep in the end, feeling uncomfortable or not.

My dreams were always the same; mostly I couldn't make them out. They took place in sort of a forest, everything was always so foggy, and there was always this voice telling me to wake up. It never got any further than that. At least not until now.

In my dream I was laying down on some rock, or something hard at least, and my eyes were closed. Someone was stroking my hair softly, as if trying to lull me into a sense of awareness. I knew this had never happened before in my dreams. Whoever was stroking my hair spoke faintly, still trying to lull me awake. "Wake up April. It's time to wake up," the voice said. It was female, and familiar. "April, it's time to wake up!" And I woke up - at least my dream self woke, and I desperately wished I hadn't. The person I saw was the last one I wanted to see. I recoiled from the attention to my hair and sat up quickly.

Senna smirked down at me, placing her hands into her lap. She looked just like I remembered her, too. Still in the same clothes that were now stained with blood. She didn't look dead at all, however, she looked tired. She actually tossed her head back and laughed, probably after noticing that I had been staring at her like a fish out of water. The sound of her laughter carried through the woods around us, seeming to bounce off of the trees and rocks all around. I wished it hadn't.

I wanted to wake up. Oh, God, someone please wake me up.

"It's not over, April," Senna snapped, catching my attention at once. There was a small smile forming on her lips as she spoke. "When will you wake up? Can't you see there's no running, there's no hiding. I'll always find you," she sneered, leaning back on the palms of her hands, cocking her head to the side.

I continued to gape at her. "But you're-"

She smiled. "Dead? Yes, yes," she said with a hollow chuckle. "Things work much differently here in Everworld, dear sister," Senna continued, glancing up at the tree tops. "Nothing is as it was, and it's all because all of you wont wake up! I'm not the bad guy in this anymore, April. I've gone and the little girl has come out to play. You knew her, once upon a time."

Senna gestured off to the side. Amidst the fog, what seemed like an image appeared of a little girl. She was the very image of Senna when she was little. My eyes widened as I watched the look of longing on Senna's face, before long that look turned into a sneer as she looked back to me, the image fading. "All you have to do, April," she said, standing up and walking to me. "Is find her, and bring her home." With that she cupped the side of my face, looking me straight in the eye. She moved her face close to my ear. "It's time to come back. It's time to wake up. You never left. You're all still here." she whispered.

I jolted awake, glancing around the darkness of my room. I didn't want to believe that dream. I couldn't be real. We left Everworld. I know we did. There wasn't anything left for us to do, why would we have stayed there? After all, it's been a year, and none of us had shown any signs of returning to Everworld. But what about the dream? Was it real? Had that really been Senna? Maybe it was time to go back.

We all needed to wake up just one more time.

"_You can still pretend he's your daddy if you want to. But you and I will know."_


	4. IV

**Jalil's POV**

_"She has great powers."_

"_Yeah? Well, I'm going to figure out. I'm going to figure it out, figure out how it works."_

"_What? What are you going to figure out?"_

"_Magic. Everworld has held together for a long time. So, as weird as the rules may seem, there are rules. There is a system. There is software."_

"_You're pretty cocky for a guy sitting in the dark in the lowest circle of Hel's kingdom."_

"_Not about cocky. Humans lived for a million years thinking the sun went around the earth. Not knowing what caused diseases. Not knowing why the wind blew or the rain fell. They called it magic. Used to be ninety-nine percent of everything was magic. Now we know."_

We're four high school kids from a small suburb just north of Chicago. We weren't friends, once upon a year ago. We used to be just acquaintances, drawn together one morning, exactly a year ago, to see Senna. We had been dragged out of our own universe and came out into Everworld, where our journey began. We had just wanted to find Senna and get home. That had been a year ago. We've changed now. We are still the same, in many ways, and we are still just as different as we had been when all of our troubles had begun.

So much seemed to have changed. It was only three months ago that people finally accepted that Senna was gone. But we didn't, we tried, but we couldn't. The truth was still there like a very sharp pang, and then we got the call from April. That call wasn't good for any of us; hearing about her dream in which Senna had said that we are apparently still in Everworld. I had hung up with her only to get a call from Christopher who ran his mouth off for a good fifteen minutes, every other word was him swearing. It was very colorful. Apparently we were supposed to meet April and David at the lake. Honestly? I didn't want to go.

Still, I found myself walking out of the door with my backpack on. The lake had been where it all began before, with that in mind I had packed the backpack full of food that I was able to find around the house, a shirt or two, and Excalibur. I'd much rather be prepared. Finding food in Everworld while being constantly on the run? Not so much fun. Having to wear the same sweaty, dirty clothes all the time? Enough said. I also packed soap. I probably could have packed some kind of shampoo, too, and I probably should have, but four things of soap were all that I could get my hands on without my mom asking why I was packing away so much soap in my backpack.

I had to wonder, though, as I made my way to the lake, if we were still really in Everworld, why hadn't we woken up there each time we went to sleep here? Despite the fact that we had a girl to find now, why would we even consider staying in Everworld? Things there were just as real as they were here, only there were _gods_ there. Magic really existed there. There is a fine line between myth and reality and Everworld has it all. All our myths are Everworld's reality and so much more. What other place has a crazy god who was after a witch just to escape Everworld or a giant snake? It's still very chilling, and all of it still pains me. Everworld is the one place where myth and reality really do clash.

I remember it.

Loki and the other gods wanted out of Everworld before Ka Anor got hungry for them. Merlin wanted to unite the gods to resist Ka Anor. And of course, it had all come down to the possession of Senna Wales, the _charming_ gateway between universes. And we got dragged into all of it. We traveled around Everworld in search for her, sometimes with her, mostly looking for her. And then we killed her, and by we I mean April.

I hated Everworld. Seriously, it was the only placed that you could get killed by a talking pig. There was always some kind of threat, and always something for us to do. Gods, wizards, dragons, trolls, dwarves, and death. There was a lot of death. Very, very real death. And very real pain, and all the more reason to ask myself why the hell am I going back? Because there something for us to do.

I didn't even realize that I had finally made it to the lake.

"Captain Shiny Boots finally arrived," Christopher saluted, walking up to me. "Welcome, Cap."

"Christopher."

"Yeah?"

"Shut the fuck up about my boots."

What a way to start the day. Ever since I bought a pair of boots, which was apparently very shiny according to April, Christopher took up the privilege of nicknaming me Captain Shiny Boots. Glancing around as the other boy made his way back onto the dock where April and David stood, looking as though they had been fighting for quite some time, I could only guess what was on their minds. David was throwing his hands in the air while April looked on the verge of screaming, or biting his head off. Christopher was snickering beside me once I had finally decided to join the happy go lucky group.

The one thing that posed a problem. We were here, in the real world. We had been going to sleep and waking up like any normal person would, from normal dreams. If we were supposedly still asleep in Everworld, how were we supposed to 'wake up' back there? Words couldn't described how much I hated Senna right now. She could have been a little more helpful in this department. Opening gateways and the like were supposed to be her specialty after all, but then there was the little dead factor at play, too.

Witches? Yeah, I hate them.

"So, how are we getting back to Hell?" Christopher asked, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I mean we don't have witchy woman, so that rules out seeing a giant wolf. What are we supposed to do, dive and take a swim?"

April fidgeted beside David for a moment before walking to the end of the dock. She was glancing down at the water, looking at it intently from what I could see. Her face was scrunched up in thought, and she held on to the straps of her own backpack (I'd like to point out that the only one of us without a backpack was David.). Frowning, she looked up. "Yes, Christopher, that's exactly what we're about to do. The water's choppy. This isn't choppy water weather," she paused. "Or we could just wait around and see if Fenrir does comes."

"I'd sooner swim," David said quickly.

Christopher nodded. "So that's what his name was! I knew it started with an F."

Well all just stared at him.

"Do you remember what happened the last time Fenrir came?" David questioned, looking at Christopher bemusedly. "Yeah, it was kind of like the world was coming to an end."

"Aye, I remember, General!" Christopher saluted before snickering.

Someone really needed to strangle Christopher. Or at least push him into the lake - just to see what would happen.

Of course, April went and ruined the fun of pushing Christopher in, and jumped in her self. There was a splash, but it wasn't a normal sounding on. It was more of the sound of something being dropped into water. A blurp. With her backpack on, she should have made a normal splash. Things happened after that. There was a loud buzzing that seemed to float around all of us. It was like there were several hundred bees swarming around but were no where to be seen. Christopher was swinging his arms around himself, as if to bat away this none existent bees. David stood with his hands over his ears, looking at the spot where April had stood before jumping into the water. And by some ungodly power, or maybe I slipped into a brief moment of insanity, I ran forward, and jumped into the water, too.

But it wasn't water. It was pressure. Like driving in a car with your head out of the window. It was hard to breathe, and I couldn't open my eyes. All around me I could hear the sounds of Christopher shouting, it sounded like it was coming from above me, and to my left and right. I shook and I knew that both David and Christopher had jumped. My head was going to explode. My eyes were plugging so much that it was painful. And there were sounds. None of the sounds were distinct. I could make out birds, rustling of leaves, and crying. The crying was what got me; it didn't sound like any one of us.

_You shouldn't have come_

And everything was black.

Okay, here's the thing. Waking up I have no problem with. You see, I love waking up, it means I'm back in reality, where there are actual rules and things make sense. But waking up in Everworld is a completely different subject. Nothing in Everworld begins to make sense until you have all the pieces of a puzzle and a lot of background so that later you can piece everything together. It's complicated. Also, waking up in Everworld meant that you'd probably been sleeping on the ground in some forest. And then you wake up with Christopher's foot jammed in your ribcage and want to sock him before realizing that you're all tangled.

"This has got to be some strange and weird orgy," Christopher grunted, shifting and unknowingly shoving his foot more into my ribcage. "Or a very bad dream, because I'd never have an orgy with any of you."

"Christopher, shut up," April snapped before groaning. "And would one of you kindly remove your hand from my butt?"

"Whoops."

"Christopher!"

April, who was apparently sprawled across me, had David twisted over her legs. Christopher found himself twisted between David and April with one foot under me, pushing into my ribcage painfully. Thankfully, April had managed to push off both David and Christopher, both of whom grunted with pain. I stayed face down on the ground. There was carpet. It smelt moldy and damp. It _felt_ damp.

When I had finally managed to sit up the others were already standing. I stood too, and took a look around. We were in some kind of house. And it actually looked - normal. Something normal in Everworld. Who'd have thought? However, the normality of the house was short lived as two painting of flowers began singing. It was horrible singing, too. A mix between a dying cat and nails on a chalkboard. The sound of the singing paintings made me wonder if my ears were bleeding, because they sure were pounding. And then -

"Oh my god," David choked out, staring a the door near the back.

A little blonde haired girl screamed and ran through the door.

We followed.

The room we had entered could have passed for a house of mirrors. You know, the ones that make you look fat, skinny, weird, and tall? Yeah, those were the kinds of mirrors that were handing on the walls. It didn't take us long before we found the girl; she was sitting huddle in a corner of the room, pushing her hands over her ears. She wasn't looking at us. She was looking at he mirror that was behind us, and when I turned around I could see why: There was a face in the mirror. It wasn't a reflection. It was just a face. All the mirrors had faces, all of the different, and all of the beautiful in their own way.

They were speaking. Soft murmurs filled the room and we all walked to a mirror. The faces in the mirrors were promising something with their sweet murmurs. Compared to the rooms with the paintings, this room was heaven. The mirrors chuckled and laughed, still making promises. None of us remembered the girl; she was there, but we forgot her, lost in the words of the mirrors. Finally, the girl pulled us from the mirrors.

"Don't listen to the mirrors!" She shouted, still huddled in her corner. She was looking up at all of us with wide eyes, pulling herself into a ball once more. "They lie. They always lie."

Christopher blinked. "About about what?"

"They're swooning you," the girl replied blankly.

April and David paled. "Oh, god."

The girl gave a heavy sigh before standing up, brushing blonde hair over her shoulder. Wrinkling her nose she glanced at the four of us before shaking her head. She was leaving. She was walking back into the room we had all just come from, looking at all of us over her shoulder like we were ghost, or oddly shaped rocks, or something. Christopher began making gagging noises; finally putting together what the girl had said about the mirrors. He was a poor actor.

"Where are you going?" I heard April say, ignoring the gagging noises Christopher was making.

The girl didn't stop walking. "I'm getting out of here. This is a cabin in the middle of an enchanted forest."

"Oh. Is that bad?"

"Do you want to have sex with a mirror?"

Christopher's gagging noises grew louder. I don't think he was faking anymore. "That's fucking disgusting, man," he commented.

Welcome to Everworld.

"_Ah. So you'll be the first scientist in Everworld."_

- - -

**A/N:** 'Kay, this chapter was rushed, but its five in the morning, and I haven't gone to bed. Also? Me and Jalil don't get along at all. We had issues while writing this chapter. Big issues.


	5. V

**David's POV**

_We know you. We know what you've done. Come. come, stay with us. Stay with us and die._

That's what the mirrors had said. That's what they wanted us to do; die. It seemed like a good idea at the time, when we were still in the room filled them. I think we were very likely to have stayed with those mirrors, too, if it hadn't been for the girl. That little girl who looked like she didn't belong in Everworld, that made us seem like regulars in a place we should have never entered to begin with, but she seemed jumpy, like she was trying to get away from something. Like she was trying to hide.

As we all continued to walk she kept glancing at each of us out of the corner of her eyes, regarding us. It was very unnerving. Each time her gaze would land on either April or Jalil she would shift closer to the front of the group and pick up her pace. Once she had even given us a fleeting look that was probably her way of telling us that if we didn't hurry and pick up pace then she would run ahead and leave us behind to find out way out of the forest. I was still dumbfounded from when she had said before that she knew her way out. Isn't it some kind of rule that you're not supposed to know your way out of an enchanted forest?

Jalil was regarding the girl. He was studying her. It probably wasn't logical for a little girl her age to be wandering around in a forest dressed in a dirt and mud smeared dress that I think was white. But you could tell that she had shorts on under it, there was all kinds of rips and tears near the bottom. I think she had on jean shorts, that's what it looked like anyway. She had her lips set in a thin line as she keep picking up and dropping pace. I was studying her, I realized. She was blonde with her hair pulled back in a sloppy, tangled ponytail with twigs and leaves stuck in her hair.

She had probably been running through the forest for quite sometime.

Beside me, Christopher was snickering to himself something about mirrors and how they had evil powers. Did he not remember where we happened to be? One year and then he's tossed back into a place where we never really left and he's acting like it's all so new to him. Give me a stick. I swear I wont kill him, just beat him around a little. Honest.

I think within the last hour the most conversation that floated around the group had to have been: "Oh, fuck, that's gross. I swallowed a bug," or, "Will you stop staring at me!" and, "Are we there yet?" Now we just walked in silence. It felt like we were marching toward certain death. It always seems to be like that. The girl had just caught April staring at her and halted in mid step. Thankfully, we weren't in a straight line. Playing dominoes isn't exactly the top of my list now.

"Stop staring at me!" The girl cried, looking pointedly at April. "Yes, I'm a girl. Yes, I'm nine years old, and no I don't like being stared at," she finished, throwing her hands up for effect. April looked affronted; I couldn't blame her. I don't think she'd been snapped at like that for awhile. Actually, I can't remember when the last time she had been snapped at was.

Christopher took the time to cross his arms and regarded the girl. For what felt like a good whole twenty minutes he just stared at the girl who was staring at April who had her mouth hanging open in shock. "So, girl, kid, person," Christopher began, uncrossing his arms. "D'you have a name, or are we going to call you Strange Kid In A Forest Who Knows About Lying Mirrors?" I took the time to punch Christopher in the arm. We glared at each other before the girl turned to look at him.

She cocked her head to the side. "My name's Sel," she said with a huff. "And from what I can see you've got to be So Stuck Up That You Can't Ask Questions Politely." Sel sniffed, shifting away from Jalil as he had looked up at her. Not once had she met his gaze, she always adverted her gaze else where when talking with him. April had picked up on that. Honestly, I didn't care, I just wanted to figure out where we were going, and how far we had to have been in the forest. It couldn't have been very logical that we were going deeper into the forest.

The five of us continued to tread through the forest, tripping occasionally on a rock or roots of a tree. April and Christopher were shifting the weight of their back packs, and Jalil was looking through his, Sel had stopped walking and put her hands on her hips before turning around to face the four of us. It wasn't long before she was looking around the place out of the corner of her eyes. She looked almost worried - or like she was out to about to take off running. Instead she sighed.

"You've been here before, haven't you?" she asked, looking at each and everyone of us at least five times. "Everworld, I mean. You've all been to Everworld." She gestured to the backpacks.

"Not the friendliest of places, and not a place that I would ever consider going on vacation to," Christopher said, holding the straps of his backpack. "We've been here before, yeah. Why do-"

"Everworld's changing," Sel cut in bluntly. "Things are happening here that shouldn't be. Everything is _changing_."

Eyeing the girl I asked the only question that I could figure should be asked. "What do you mean 'changing'? Are the gods all getting together to form some all-powerful group to rule over Everworld or something?"

Christopher seemed to have found something funny. "Oh, god, don't tell me that giant snakes and dwarves want to have babies." He paused. "Because you know those would being some really ugly looking babies."

Sel shook her head. She glanced up at the sky and furrowed her brow. My gazed followed hers. Then sun was setting, I thought it was already night, but we were just stuck in the dark forest. Now the sun was setting, and I could see the difference in darkness. It was getting darker. Sel sighed before sitting down on the ground. She rubbed her eyes tiredly before looking back up. "Vampire's found their way to Everworld," she said slowly, making sure that these words stuck with us. "They're everywhere, and they want out of Everworld."

April blinked. "You mean they want to cross over to the real world?" Sel nodded. "How do you know that there's vampires?"

"They've been following us."


	6. VI

**Christopher's POV**

_"They've been following us."_

Well if that wasn't news.

Vampires, well hey, that was something new. Maybe not completely shocking, but new. When some strange nine year old plops herself down and proceeds to tell you that there are vampires about you tend to think there's something new about _that_. Or incredibly wrong. Makes a guy kind of wish he could go home and sleep in his own bed where some blood sucker can't latch on to his neck and drain him dry with in moments. Or maybe I've just seen too many horror movies before today.

Either way, aren't little girls supposed to be just a little afraid of things that go bump in the night? Yeah, Sel was creepy. Even April saw it. And Jalil? Well, the girl was just staying away from Jalil. And then there was David, oh Sel had little to no affect on him. Lucky bastard. Sel just gave me the down right jitters, and really, that's not something that I would admit. So I'm not going to.

"How's that possible?" David asked, running his hands through his hair. "They're _vampires_. I mean, they're _dangerous._"

Oh, oh! Boy was he ever so smart! Really, when I grow up? I want to be _just_ like David. Maybe I can name myself General Christopus. Or General Christopiss. "I'm sure that a giant snake is just a pet compared to some vampire."

"Shut up, Christopher," Jalil snapped, shifting his footing.

"Y'know," I commented, stuffing my hands in my pockets. "Sometimes I think that's all I ever hear."

April groaned. "Christopher-"

"Yeah, yeah. 'Christopher, shut up!' Gotcha."

Sel sighed. I don't think I could blame her much. She was nine, and we were all a few good years older than her, and we were all locked away in the same hell. We hadn't even been in Everworld long, and already I forgot why we came, and part of me even forgot I left. I didn't leave. However that worked. Stupid sleeping and dreaming, Everworld screwed sleep up for me, that's for sure. I'm sure that the others agree, and now it seemed like neither of us wanted to go to sleep any time soon after hearing that there were vampires roaming about and all that nice stuff.

Sure, it was strange just having Sel there. Stranger still that she told us that Everworld was changing. How does a place that should exist continuously change? It was like one problem after the next, a cycle that never ended, and this is a very good example showing that I have spent too much time with or around Jalil. He instilled some smartness into my brain. It hurt my heart to know that I could actually be smart, not that, you know, I wasn't already, but to be Jalil smart was just to bee creepy smart. And creepy smart is like geeky smart.

April and David had gone over to a nearby tree, with arms folded over their chests, looking around. Jalil sat down on a rock and put his head into his heads. Me, I just shook my head. Maybe if we all clicked our heels together and wished we were home, we would be able to go home. Oh, if only that would work. It could, but it was very doubtful.

And no one was talking.

Something had to be done about that.

"I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes-"

"Christopher, will you shut your damn mouth!" David shouted over his shoulders. April glanced this way, and I flashed her a smile.

Of course, little Sel tilted her head back, staring up at the trees. "I need to find my mom," she said to no one in particular, but it was something that we all turned our ears to. "She'd know what to do about the vampires."

"Oh, but her mummy is off in a land far, far away!" Cackled a new voice from the shadows. "Off frolicking in the sun

Two people stepped out from behind a big oak tree, a boy and girl. Both looking no older than either of us.

The one boy flashed us a fanged grin.

"'Ello, duckies."

- - - - -

**A/N:** …..This is a poor update, I know. But I figured that I should updated with something at least.


	7. VII

**April's POV**

Boo!

Two people can step out from behind a tree, say boo, and scare a little kid. But when you're in Everworld and two people step out from behind a tree there's something more than a little boo factor. It's always wondering how long they've been there and where they come from. There's never any boo, they can just show up around the corner and give you the chills, if you let them and at this very moment I let them, I think we all did.

Suddenly the woods around us grew cold and the sun had completely set. I wrapped my arms around each other to keep warm but it wasn't helping. Jalil and David seemed to be doing the same and Christopher was completely transfixed on the boy and girl who had shown up mere seconds ago. The very same boy and girl that made me want to turn around and cover my eyes. And as I looked down it was evident to me that Sel had done just that. She had covered her eyes with her hands and was biting down on her lower lip as if hoping the two people wouldn't see her.

Vampires. I'd never had a fascination with them. Senna had, I remember. She had piles of books on them and no one knew, no one at school knew. She never talked about it but at home she was always reading. She kept all of her books under her bed and at night she would choose a new one. Sometimes she wouldn't even read a book completely; she would just skim it and decided then and there whether or not it was worth keeping. Then one day they were all gone and I had asked her where her books went and she would only look up and smile. It was a sad smile but there was something behind it.

"Speechless," cooed the girl, flipping back a braid the lay on her shoulder. "All of them so speechless and their hearts pounding! Oh, and such a loss; following the girl around, trying to find a way out."

Jalil's eyes shifted to Sel and Christopher's jaw nearly dropped.

"Loss, what loss? Who said there was a loss?" He asked before his eyes widened. "Oh… Oh. We're not lost! We're perfectly fine. We – we're lost, ain't we?"

"What was your first clue?" I muttered, not taking my eyes off of the two in front of us all.

The boy had smirked, drawing the girl closer to him. He whispered something to her and she laughed quietly to herself. The rest of us regarded them.

David shifted in place, looking about ready to run, but Sel beat him to it. She had been running from them the whole time. Here's something to think about: If you met a little girl in the woods who tells you to stop listening to lying mirrors, and then proceeds to tell you that there are vampires around in the world and that they've been following you, don't you think you would run the minute said vampires showed up? Or would you rather run after the girl and tried to figure out just what the hell was going on.

Jalil's eyes were everywhere. Jumping from person to person. It was almost all too clear that he was studying the situation. I almost had half the mind to ask him what he was thinking. But couldn't. Christopher got there first.

"Spock. Spcokie, Spockie, Spoock!" He said, inching towards him. "What's going on in that there brain of yours?"

The first scientist, and the first real world idiot in Everworld. Could this get any better?

"They're boring now," the girl pouted, putting her hands on her hips. "Can't I go after the girl now, pretty please?"

And then the silence fell over all of again and for the first time, or rather the second time the boy spoke.

"No, love. I've got a story for these ones," and as he spoke, he smiled and I felt my heart sink and the rumble in my throat that finally pushed out until I was screaming.

I've got a secret, I'm scared of vampires.

- - - - -

**A/N:** I'm very ashamed of this chapter, but I haven't updated this in awhile and I acutally don't have the notes for this fic anymore. Sorry for the lame update, guys, but bare with me. I don't even have my books at the moment. There will be a better update later, promise!


	8. VIII

**Jalil's POV**

There's a thing about vampires.

They are gods in their own right. Able to live forever on the blood of others, but seemingly damned into darkness, never knowing and ever forgetting what it is to live in the light. And the vampires of Everworld were none the different. They tired of their world and sought something new, something different and what they found they loathed with a passion that so very few have ever felt. For they were the gods of their world, feared and powerful. In Everworld they were little but a bug compared to the other gods. They were just another being left to fend for themselves slowly becoming a dying race, always lurking and always watching.

Their story had been told of their rush to leave their world, how they sought the new world that is Everworld and how its inhabitants fought back and their numbered shrunk. They had no way of getting back to their world and with little less than a hundred in hiding they were looking for a new world in which they could thrive and be like gods once more. But to do that they would need a pathway - something that would open up a gate into a different kind of world. Anything to them would be better than Everworld.

Here they were nothing but flesh, bone, and little sharp teeth, and nothing made sense to them. Just like nothing made sense to us anymore. The sun had little effect on them in Everworld, it made them weaker, as if an illness had taken over them.

April's scream had pierced us all, making me jump and turn my head. Sel had run off somewhere in the woods once more and was completely out of sight when April's screaming had finally come to an end. If this had been a cartoon I'm sure that Christopher's left eye would be twitching very dramatically and David and myself would have fallen to the ground. But it wasn't.

"Don't care for stories," I muttered under my breath, shifting my weight. "There'll be no end, nothing to put together."

And that was when the vampire girl laughed. "It's a puzzle, it is!" she barked, throwing a hand down. "One that has no beginning and no end."

Christopher pushed David forward, leering between the two vampires. "Him!" he said, hushed. "Eat him! General Davidus, he's all your's!"

"Christopher!" both April and David shouted.

The boy vampire growled stepping forward. He looked David over before eyeing Christopher. There was a moment when we all held our breath. And then he pushed both of them over onto the ground and scoffed. "He's no general," he scowled, turned to face the girl. "Danette, find the girl, and bring her here, love. I've got something to ask her."

The other vampire, Danette, pouted for a moment. "Jadon, you've always had the fun! I want my turn!" she hissed before darting off at a speed I'd never have considered reasonable. It was a speed that I felt offended reason.

Both Christopher and David slowly stood with the help of April and myself, neither of us taking our eyes off of the vampire, Jadon, before us. Something, some voice in the back of my head was whispering to me, almost mockingly. _There are rules, Jalil._ It said_. Rules that they must follow. Make them an offer. Make them an offer to help them_. Rules. Guidelines. Everything had them. Or at least everything should have them.

"We can help," I said, voice cracking. "You want out of Everworld - we can help."

Christopher blanched. "We can _what?_"

Jadon turned toward me and smiled - or maybe it was a smirk. "Brilliant."

_That's my little scientist._

_- - - - _

**_A/N :_** I did it! I updated. Not quite how I wanted it to come out, but I'm happy with it. Also, I found my books! So I'll be rereading those soon and we should have more updates coming along. Hang in there and enjoy!


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